The California Community Foundation has announced grants totaling $7.4 million to 123 summer programs through its LA County Summer Learning Initiative.

Launched in 2020 to address the need for summertime learning environments to mitigate learning loss and address the social-emotional needs of youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative is funding learning and enrichment programs for low-income and vulnerable students in K-12 schools and community-based organizations — programs that are expected to serve more than sixty-two thousand students over the next three months. Recipients include Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Los Angeles, East Side Riders Bike Club, Girls Inc. of Greater Los Angeles, Project ECHO, and Social Justice Learning Institute.

The grants are supported in part by a $5 million commitment from Ballmer Group, including $4 million for schools and community-based organizations; $925,000 in support of LA Unified's Early Education Summer Program; and $75,000 toward summer youth employment efforts through Hire LA's Youth. The support is part of a $10 million investment by Ballmer Group in summer programming this year in Los Angeles County, which also includes $3 million to the LA Education Recovery Fund; $1.5 million for the Play Equity Fund; and $500,000 to the GRYD Foundation for Summer Night Lights. Other funders of the LA County Summer Learning Initiative include the Silver Giving Fund,  Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and the Carl and Roberta Deutsch, Stuart, and Heising-Simons foundations.

"This year the needs of our students have only grown due to the continued physical closures of schools and youth-serving community centers," said California Community Foundation president and CEO Antonia Hernández. "CCF and its partners recognize that need and are pleased to provide the resources necessary to help nonprofits and school-based summer programs offer engaging and critical services to their students this summer."

For a complete list of LA County Summer Learning Initiative grantees, see the California Community Foundation website.

(Photo credit: Girls Inc. of Greater Los Angeles)